Everywhere I look these days, all the news channels, newspapers, and the Internet are buzzing about Prince William’s engagement to Kate Middleton. They really do make a cute couple, don’t they? They’d be a lot cuter if they weren’t part of the royal family. And they would have really impressed me if the prince would have bought Kate a modest engagement ring instead of an 18 carat sapphire, and donated the difference to a worthwhile charity.

I don’t quite understand the whole royalty thing—kings, queens, princes, princesses, and a life surrounded in luxury. Who are these people and why do they deserve to be on a higher level of society than anyone else? Why should we revere them more than a homeless person, a blue collar worker, or a nurse? Can you name one noteworthy contribution Prince William has made to society?

I do not believe in grouping people into classes: upper class, middle class, lower class. People are people, and they earn respect through actions, not entitlement. To be honest, the whole issue makes me nauseous.

When Princess Diana died in August of 1997, there was more news coverage of this tragic event than the assassination of JFK. Every media source from The New York Times to the Washington Post dedicated pages and pages to her death as well as her life. Not many people even know this or remember but Mother Teresa died a week after Diana. Do you have any idea how much news coverage she got? It amounted to a 30 second blurb on TV and a single column newspaper article on page 3 of the East Podunk Herald. While Princess Diana posed for photo ops, chatting it up with elementary school kids, Mother Teresa was saving the world. Yet society chose to focus their attention on a pretty face. If you get a minute, Google Mother Teresa and take a look at the amazing things this tiny woman did for humankind. It’s astounding.

If Prince William—or any other person of royalty—wants to earn my respect, then let them show me a résumé that even comes close to Mother Teresa’s.

5 responses to “Royalty”

Amen! My biggest peeve is this news overshadows the fact that good men and women are still dying in Afghanistan and Iraq, but none of the Royal family could fight in those wars because it is “too” risky. I abhor everything about the Royal Family for, but I guess that is just the Irish half of me.

People seem to have forgotten how much bloodshed and torture is on the hands of the ancestry of that throne.

No argument here. But I’m not walking down that road. The main thrust of my post was to point out that people are people and that no one–based on some archaic standard–should be entitled to be treated with more respect than anyone else. You earn respect; it’s not a birthright.